Norton Praises Subcommittee Passage of Spending Bill Blocking President from Federalizing D.C. Police, Providing $40 Million for DCTAG

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the House's fiscal year (FY) 2021 District of Columbia Appropriations bill, which contains most of her top policy and funding priorities, was passed today by the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. The bill, among other things, prohibits the president from federalizing the D.C. police department; contains no anti-home-rule riders; abides by D.C.'s local budget autonomy law; and provides $40 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG), a Norton priority, with a $250,000 increase in the family income eligibility limit for DCTAG. The full Appropriations Committee is expected to mark up the bill next week and the bill is expected to be on the House floor later this month.

"Until our D.C. statehood bill passes in the Senate, I will continue to use the tools I have to propose what the city needs from the federal government," Norton said. "Among my priorities in the bill are blocking the president from being able to federalize the D.C. police after he considered it last month, and full funding for DCTAG, which allows thousands of District students to attend colleges and universities in all 50 states because D.C. doesn't have a typical state university system."

Key Provisions:

• The bill prohibits the president from federalizing the D.C. police department in FY 2021. The D.C. Home Rule Act permits the president to federalize the D.C. police department. Last month, during largely peaceful protests in D.C., the Trump administration threatened to federalize the D.C. police department.
• The bill provides $40 million for DCTAG, which each of the last five enacted spending bills have provided, but, with Democrats in control of the House, repeals the provision in the enacted FY 2019 spending bill that reduced the family income eligibility limit from $750,000 to $500,000.
• The bill has no anti-home-rule riders. In particular, it removes the two enacted FY 2020 D.C. riders—prohibitions on the District's use of its local funds on abortion and on recreational marijuana commercialization.
• The bill provides $52.9 million for emergency planning and security costs related to the federal presence in D.C., including the next inauguration.
• The bill allows the District to spend its local funds under the Local Budget Autonomy Act, which means that the local budget passed by the D.C. Council and signed by the mayor can take effect after a congressional review period, like all other local D.C. bills. If enacted, this bill would be the first since enactment of the Home Rule Act that D.C. could spend its local funds without a congressional appropriation of such funds.
• The bill exempts D.C. from federal government shutdowns in FY 2022. Norton has gotten annual shutdown exemptions enacted every year since the 2013 federal government shutdown.
• The bill provides $8 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) for ongoing work to control flooding in the city and clean up the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek, the same as the enacted FY 2020 level; an extra $4 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C., the same as the enacted FY 2020 level; and $413,000 for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program for tuition for D.C. National Guard soldiers, the same as the enacted FY 2020 level.
• Norton is disappointed that the bill allows new students to enroll in the private school voucher program Congress imposed on the District but is pleased that the bill requires participating voucher schools to comply with federal civil rights laws. The program has failed to improve academic achievement, as measured by math and reading test scores. The D.C. voucher program is the only federally funded voucher program in the U.S.